| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Female, can be male as well
Pronunciation: chkhee–ro [tɕì̥.çí.ɾó̞]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
The most common form of this name is 千尋, which means “great depth; great height,” individually meaning “thousand” and “fathom.”
Other first element kanji include 知/智 meaning “wisdom,” 稚 meaning “young, new” and 地 meaning “earth, ground, land; place.” As for the second element, any kanji related to the adjective 広/弘/宏い (hiroi) meaning “spacious, vast, wide” can be used, like 紘 and 裕, as well as others that expand on that, such as 宙 meaning “space, (mid)air” and 陽 meaning “day; sun.” Alternatively, it can be split into two kanji, with a hi kanji like 比 or 妃/姫 meaning “princess” and a ro kanji 呂.
Popularity:
In use since at least the Meiji period (1868-1912), throughout the early 20th century, it was common for a man to have this name. Regardless, the name was uncommonly used at that time.
By the 1980s, Chihiro was rising in popularity for girls and by 1990, it was given to over a percent of them, placing it within the top 20. At the same time, usage for boys was more uncommon at over 0.07%, though it would steadily rise throughout the Heisei period (1989-2018).
Chihiro as a girl’s name began falling in popularity throughout that period, though it did see a jump in popularity in 2001 thanks to widely acclaimed ‘Spirited Away’. According to my preliminary 2014-8 names research, over 0.22% of girls and over 0.15% of boys were given this name in that period, meaning that if the name continues along its current trajectories, there might be more more boys named Chihiro than girls by the 2020s and 2030s, like what has happened with Chiaki right now.
If you would like to add in your thoughts about this name, please share them in the comments below.
Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 